Rhode Island Funds Statewide EHR Repository

Rhode Island Plans Central Bank of e-Health Records

BY Nancy Ferris
Published on June 15, 2006

Rhode Island's legislature has approved borrowing $20 million to finance the creation of a statewide repository of e-health records, Gov. Donald Carcieri told the Government Health IT Conference today.

Carcieri said his state, like others, is facing rapid escalation of health care costs and is taking steps to hold them down. Medicaid alone now accounts for 24 percent of the state's budget.

"Health care is the No. 1 public policy issue for our nation," he said, and no solutions are at hand. "It falls on the states to do something."

Of all the potential fixes for health care, Carcieri said, health IT holds the most promise in the near term. "Health IT can really squeeze costs out of the system, increase quality and improve outcomes," he said.

The governor said up to $2 billion of the $6 billion spent on health care annually in Rhode Island is wasted because the right information isn't available when needed. For example, he said, 20 percent of the diagnostic tests done on patients are unnecessary.

The compact size of Rhode Island, which has about 1 million residents and only two major health insurers, may make it easier to fix the health care system, Carcieri said.

The health records bank recently approved by the General Assembly will hold digitized patient records and make them available to authorized individuals.

Carcieri said it should be established as a public-private partnership. "There needs to be public oversight" to increase public trust in the data bank, he said.

Although the bond issue authorized by the legislature will pay for establishing the databank, the governor said the method of financing operations hasn't been decided yet. He favors charging a small fee for each transaction, he said, but getting such a system in place will not be easy.

Asked how his state's program meshed with federal health IT activities, Carcieri acknowledged the potential value of a national health information network. But, he said, "If we wait for the federal government to come up with a whole large scheme, there are so many interests" it could take years.